Towards a cultural typology of European work values and work organisation

This is a first attempt to present a typology of work values and work organisation in Europe. The typology identifies four core cultures: traditional capitalist countries, southern Europe, the Scandinavian countries and the former communist regimes. Examples are drawn from three areas: a social‐historical context (societal) and two group related phenomena: the typical scandal and the social role of money. In addition, a paradigm is proposed, comparing and contrasting contemporary cultural models on work values.     

Career Mobility in a Global Era: Advances in Managing Expatriation and Repatriation

The surge of interest in expatriation and repatriation within the broader discourse on labor mobility of professionals and high-skilled labor, human capital development, and the theory and practice of people management serves as the backdrop to this paper. We propose that expatriation and repatriation be framed in the context of global careers and embedded in the wider social-economic environment of globalization through the lens of a career ecosystem theory. We chart the evolution of scholarly publications on career mobility over the past four decades and highlight current trends, in particular the emergence of self-initiated expatriation as a pivotal change in the direction of expatriation studies and derived practice. We assess the rigor of empirical findings, weigh theoretical underpinnings, offer a research agenda for future research, and outline managerial implications.     

THE DYNAMICS OF ETHNIC INEQUALITIES: The Case of Israel

Three alternative trends of ethnic or racial inequality are formulated: diminishing inequality, rising inequality and stabilizing inequality. The last trend is hypothesized to hold for industrial ‘welfare states’ which lack both blatant discrimination against ethnic groups and systematic efforts to close the ethnic gaps.

A comprehensive study of inequalities in income, occupation, education and power between Oriental (non-European) and Ashkenazi (European) Jews in Israel has shown that the thesis of ‘stabilizing inequality’ fits Israel best. The various areas of Oriental-Ashkenazi inequality are conducive to conflict not only because of their persistence, but also for being appreciable and discrepant. It is concluded that more radical means are needed if greater ethnic equality is desired.     

What Makes an Entrepreneur and Does it Pay? Native Men,Turks, and Other Migrants in Germany

This paper focuses on the entrepreneurial endeavours of immigrants' and natives in Germany, concentrating on Turks, Germany's largest immigrant group and one under‐studied in the literature. Self‐employed Turks in Germany represent about 70 per cent of all Turkish entrepreneurs in the European Union. We use data from the German Socio‐economic Panel to study patterns of self‐employment. First, we identify the characteristics of the self‐employed individuals and understand their underlying drive into self‐employment. Next we investigate how immigrant entrepreneurs fare in the labour market and compare their earnings to those of the natives. It is important for decision makers to understand entrepreneurial patterns so that they can shape policy that better fosters entrepreneurial activities. This paper presents several findings that can inform better policymaking. First, our investigation indicates that education is not decisive in determining whether one will choose self‐employment over salaried work nor in explaining earnings. The estimated age‐earnings profiles are the same for natives and immigrants, while the proclivity to become self‐employed is concave with respect to age for both groups. Immigrants' start with a higher probability to work than natives but have a slower increase in the self‐employment probabilities thereafter. The earnings of self‐employed immigrants' are higher initially, but their earnings path crosses eventually that of the natives. Second, we find some suggestion of ethnic entrepreneurial spirit. Turks are 70 per cent more likely to be self‐employed than any other immigrant group, although they do not necessarily earn more. These patterns should be further explored.     

Leadership in the Academic Field of Business and Management and the Question of Country of Origin: A Commentary on Burgess and Shaw (2010)

With globalization in business academia expanding and deepening, it is timely to question the validity and utility of the concept of country of origin as a base category for comparative cross‐cultural research and theory development. In their contribution in the British Journal of Management, Burgess and Shaw (2010) rank the most productive institutions and countries contributing to board membership of top ranked journals on the basis of their country of origin. Taking their findings as a starting point for our discourse, we re‐analyse their database, in addition to our own investigations. We contend that while country of origin may be an appropriate category for between‐countries comparison of multinational entities, it is of little use when comparing meta‐national institutions, such as top tier refereed journal boards and the globalized business/management schools from which they are drawn. Our findings point towards the need for finer differentiation of what constitutes the concept country of origin, but also that its relevance should be questioned in, at least, globalized contexts. The question we pose extends to any pertinent ‘globalized’ topic within and without business and management.     

The Use of the Shye's Systemic Quality Life Model in the Examination of Child Protection Officers Decision

The paper presents the results of a systematicstudy of the factors that child protectionofficers consider in their decisions of whetheror not to remove children at risk from theirhomes. A sample of 194 child protectionofficers in Israel completed a questionnaireconstructed on the basis of Shye's SystemicQuality of Life Model (1979, 1985), which tapsthe psychological, physical, social, andcultural dimensions of the quality of life.Questions were answered on 368 children fairlyevenly divided between those they decided toremove from home and those they decided to keepat home. The findings show 85% of the decisions werecorrectly classified on the basis of the model,and show close associations between the qualityof life dimensions and the decisions. Theworkers evaluated both the current quality oflife and their parents' enabling good qualityof life as higher among the children whom theyrecommended keeping at home than among thosethey recommended removing. Similarly, theypredicted that the children they recommendedremain would have a higher quality of life athome in the future than those they recommendedbe removed. The psychological dimension of thequality of life contributed more to thedecision than the physical, and these more thanthe social and cultural.     

Correspondence in Residents' and Staff Members' Assessments of the Quality of Life of Children in Residential Care Facilities

This paper employs Shye's (1979, 1985, 1989)Quality of Life (QOL) model to examine the QOLof 920 boys and girls in 46 Residential CareFacilities in Israel, from the perspective ofboth the residents and the staff. Specifically, it examines the degree ofcorrespondence in the residents' and staffs'assessments of the residents' QOL and theassociation between the degree ofcorrespondence and the quality of the facility. Findings showed that while residents and staffmade similar assessments in various areas ofthe residents' cultural and social QOL, theresidents rated their physical QOL higher andtheir psychological QOL lower than the staffdid. Findings also showed that while residentsand staff agreed on the residents' QOL in thepoorest facilities, they disagreed in theothers. In the better facilities, the staffrated the residents' QOL lower than theresidents' did; in the poorer facilities, theresidents rated their QOL lower than the staff. These findings raise concern about staffawareness of the psychological hardships anddistress of the juveniles in their care, aswell as about their ability under thesecircumstances to provide adequate psychologicalcare.